Week 11: Cinnamon Sugar Pretzel Sticks

This recipe is definitely my favourite in a while :) I was staying at my grandparent's place during my holidays, and thought I would try something really new, so I decided to give this a go ;) It ended up that my mum, grandmother, and I were all working together to get these done. It was such fun!!

So firstly I had to make the dough, and let it rise for two hours.

Here I am in my great grandmother's apron in my grandmother's kitchen about to start folding the dough after letting it rise for two hours :)

Folding the dough

And it was sticking to the table :(

More attempts at folding

More...

Until my grandmother came in and helped me wipe the table with more and more oil ;) (That is what the recipe said to do). This made the dough less sticky and easier to work with.

Cutting up the dough into many little sticks

That is what they are supposed to look like ;) I think ...

I then had to place them for 30 seconds in a pan of simmering water and baking soda

My dad helped out a bit ;) hehe

The interesting technique of putting dough into the water, placing it on paper towelling, and then on a tray for the oven :D  It was very fun!

My grandmother, my mum and I <3 

The Sticks came out looking like little "Tiger Breads" ;)

Pretzel Sticks

Brushing the last lot of Pretzel Sticks with egg before putting them in the oven

You can then choose to either make a dip for the Sticks, or a sugar coating. 

I wanted to make a Caramel Gingerbread Dip, but we went through some difficulties trying to make the caramel...

Two times the caramel crystallised in the pan, and we have no idea why, so after a good sleep (and when my mind was not so annoyed at the sugar and water) I decided upon a Cinnamon Sugar coating ;)

The final product!!

The taste of these cuties was exactly like donuts ;) I would definitely recommend this to everyone!! It really isn't that difficult, it just takes time. 

Till next time,

The Baking Students

xx

Week 10: Sticky Toffee Flapjacks and Peanut Butter Truffles

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!

Jennifer and I are both with our parents at this time of year, so we decided that we would both make different bakes for our families (so that we would stick to the schedule of the whole cookbook in a year). I made a Sticky Toffee Flapjack, and Jennifer made a Peanut Butter Truffle.

So in my family things were getting a little bit tense. Harri, my brother, was leaving to go to the compulsory 6-month Finnish Military Service on the 2nd of January, and so we were double-checking that he had everything he needed: all the forms, clothing and other essentials (like protein bars). Everyone we have talked to about the army service have said that protein bars are essential for the army!! So we bought like 50 of those, I think ;)

The journey to the army base would take around 2 hours, so I wanted to bake something that we could easily have as a snack in the car. I also thought that it would be nice to make something that my parents hadn't heard of. Just kidding on the latter. I didn't know they hadn't heard of flapjacks ;)

Laying THE cookbook and the music down on the dining room table was the first step :)

I then heated the butter with the brown sugar and syrup

Actually, before heating those up I pitted and cut the dates, heated the butter mixture, then weighed the oats. In that order ;)

Mixing the oats into the butter mixture

And the dates

I had to taste-test the mixture to see if it was edible :D 

It was edible!!

Laying it out in a sandwich tin

Placing the flapjacks into the oven

Now onto the topping:

Measuring out the butter and sugar

Heating it up with some syrup

And then leaving it to cool when it was all bubbly like this

Now on to toasting the pecan nuts. It sounded like I should put the pecans into the toaster, since that is how you get things toasted ;) haha no... I wouldn't do that.. So I googled it, and it is best done in the oven on high heat.

Placing the pecans on an oven tray

And so google said to leave them in the oven until fragrant, so about 5 minutes. It started getting fragrant at 3 minutes, but I thought I better leave them in for a bit longer ;)

The toasted pecans after 5 minutes. Look at the colour compared to the last photo!! Lovely <3 This would even be a nice idea for a snack!! The toasting made the nuts softer and easier to eat 

Getting the toasted pecan nuts

And sprinkling them over the flapjacks :)

So I then cut it up, brought it on the car journey, and it helped us stay sustained for most of the time (we did have to stop for occasional tea and sandwich breaks)!!  

Jennifer's Peanut Butter Truffles :D

They look so good!! I would like to take one out of the computer screen ;) Probably in the future we will be able to do that ;) Do you think?

Till next time,

The Baking Students

xx

Week 8: Chocolate Ganache Filled Vanilla Cake

I remember feeling very excited about this cake!! It would be the first cake we would be making from Martha's book!!

So as we had some left-over ganache lying around (as per usual with all of us bakers in the flat ;)) I decided to make Martha's vanilla cake and layer it with the ganache. I wasn't sure how it would work, but I can now tell you that it was amazing!! I am wishing I had it right now in front of me ;) haha. 

This is how the baking started:

Our awesome flat decorated for Christmas; spread with Martha's cookbook, Christmas carols playing on my laptop and a cake tin (that was too big and so hence we didn't use;)) 

Jennifer and I decided that it would be better to use a smaller slice tin that is a square shape rather than a  circular tin that is too big, so we greased those and layered them with baking paper. 

Jennifer then got to making her layer of the cake, and I got on to mine:

Jennifer's awesome mixing stance ;)

The most spectacular Christmas window display ;) haha

Putting my layer of the cake in the oven

Heating up water to melt the ganache (which was solid because it was stored in the fridge)

I then decided to whip up the ganache, as that is what we did in one of Martha's recipe, so that it would be thicker and easier to spread onto the cake :) 

The finished product!!

It was delicious!!!!!

Till next time, 

The Baking Students 

xx

Week 7: Flapjack

So as we all gathered around the table for Christmas pudding last Sunday, handed out our Secret Santa presents, and asked if anyone would like a pot of tea, we explored the options that we had for dessert. The amount was beyond what we could eat in one night, just us 6 students, but you-know ... It can last maybe two nights ;) 

Sophie has a 6-foot Christmas tree that she brought to university. And so when we all gathered in the kitchen at around 9 pm we started by all garnishing the tree with firstly lights, which were a tad confusing for Pamela to remember which way to wind around the tree, then the baubles, which had to be done in the correct "balanced method" leaving no awkward gaps. I contributed by changing the location of one of the baubles to best suit the balance of the tree. I considered my move very important for the over-all look ;) 

Here we all are - gathered around the Christmas tree :)

 So the next thing we did after the photoshoot with the most awesome Christmas tree we gave out our Secret Santa presents.

Secret Santa giving ;) I was so touched with my awesome present from Pamela!! It was a heart-shaped red casserole pot (which I use for baking bread), and inside where 24 Christmas notes with bible verses on each!! <3 

After all the lovely gift opening we moved on to the all important eating and tea drinking :D The array was Christmas cake and flapjack, both made by Jennifer, Tiramisu, made by Caroline, and Chocolate tea, made by me ;) 

Jennifer's amazing Christmas cake with her's and Sophie's Christmas cards for me. 

Caroline dishing up here terrific Tiramisu!! Oh, and did you notice the bonbons? They are coming up next :) 

Here is how Jennifer made her Flapjack, which was Martha's recipe:

The final product :)

After the eating, when we were all feeling jolly and a bit full (just a bit) we moved on to the Bonbons!! (or Christmas crackers as they are called here). I pulled mine with Pamela. She really wanted to get the yoyo toy, and amazingly she got it!! She was so happy :) 

Till next time,

The Baking Students

xx

Bake stall

I woke up yesterday morning to a kitchen table laden with cakes and other bakes. There was apple bread, madeleines, chocolate cupcakes, double chocolate muffins, chocolate cookies and vegan banana muffins. And later I would be adding icing to the chocolate cupcakes and orange (not lemon) muffins. Not a bad amount of baking for 6 people!! 

Our kitchen table with all the bakes :) 

Invitation to our bake sale

So lately we have been super busy preparing for a Tearfund bake sale at university. Jennifer and I were stumped with work, and yet we pushed on. And I am so glad we did!!

Last night at 5:30pm the bake sale was supposed to start, and I was still making the finishing touches to the chocolate cupcakes and orange muffins, Jennifer was writing down the placards for all the bakes that we had, and we were revving to go!! We then covered the bakes with cling film, walked down the to the local bar at university, and manoeuvred the bakes and placards on the table to make them look the most appealing. Not a hard job, as they were all stunningly beautiful :D I am so annoyed I didn't take a picture to remember it by!!

So .... drum roll please ....

We raised a whopping 38 pounds for Tearfund!!!! I would think that that is amazing for a 30 minute bake sale. 

Just thought I would give you guys an update, and to tell you that we are behind on schedule since we only made Breakfast muffins last week and no new bakes this week. So, heaps more baking to come!!

The Breakfast Muffins!! I was so busy that Jennifer and Sophie made them and I ate them on the run :D Yes, you heard me right, Sophie helped make them ;) 

The Baking Students

xx